New Delhi, 10 October 2016: As
exclusive real estate partners to the World Economic Forum - the
renowned international institution for public-private cooperation –
international property consultancy JLL is an active participant at WEF
meetings across the world. Anuj Puri, Chairman & Country Head, JLL
India has been a regular delegate at the annual WEF winter meeting in
Davos, Switzerland over the past three years. China and India have also
hosted WEF meetings since 2000, and the India edition is a highly
popular annual event.

JLL
India's top leadership attended the India Economic Summit 2016 on 6-7
October 2016 in New Delhi, and got an inside view of a number of key
discussions. Of high interest were the sessions on India's Fourth
Industrial Revolution and its dividends, and key debates on how PM
Modi's policy reforms have helped revitalized the world's fastest
growing large economy.

Anuj Puri, a veteran Indian real estate
thought leader and industry influencer, is also a keen observer and
analyst of macro and micro- economic dynamics and trends that impact
global and India-specific. His comments on Day 1 of the Summit:

“I
attended the World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit with my eyes
trained on discussions by high-level leaders from business, government,
civil society and academia that explore how we can collectively shape
policies for inclusive growth and harness the Fourth Industrial
Revolution. I was richly rewarded on this front.

The world
economy today is a matrix of divergent growth patterns, where different
economies are growing at different paces. The ‘two-speed’ economic
growth theory that was followed for at least two decades before the
Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008-09 has, over the last five years,
given way to divergent growth paths in both the advanced and emerging
economies. It has become difficult to cull optimum investment
opportunities globally, and BREXIT fears as well as the slowdown in
China have further dimmed the global investment outlook.

In the
words of previous RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, India remained an
'island of calm in a turbulent ocean'. It is for good reason that this
South-Asian major not only ranks favourably among all other BRICS’
economies but also with reputed credit rating agencies like S&P,
Fitch and Moody’s.

China, the much-touted 'growth engine of the
world', has been seeing a significant and consistent slowdown in
activity. From a peak growth rate of around 14% y-o-y in 2007, it went
to an average growth rate of around 9% during and immediately post-GFC.
Currently, it is below 7%, and the Chinese economy has become a cause
for real concern. In fact, global policymakers, economic analysts and
investors waiting to see when and to what extent China will bottom out.

China's
exports, which accounted for 40% of its pre-crisis GDP, have been under
considerable stress as world demand slows down. Mineral ore imports by
China have also fallen to adversely impact economies of several
developed and developing nations. The export component of its GDP is
currently down to one-fourth, comparable to that of India. For
consumption-driven economies such as India, falling commodity prices are
favourable because their imports get cheaper and trade deficits narrow
down.

India’s states are comparable to some major economies
across the globe. However, the opportunity is way bigger for India as a
country and an emerging superpower. Finance minister Arun Jaitley aptly
states at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year that
India’s GDP can potentially grow to 9%, and that the ‘I’ in BRICS now
represents hope for the world.

The time is right for India to
strengthen its economy and cities further, so that it can gear up for
the oncoming Fourth Industrial Revolution. In manufacturing, we need to
be innovation-driven as well as mass-product supply-driven under the
government's ‘Make in India’ program. The demographic dividend must be
capitalized on through other initiatives like ‘Skill India’ and ‘Digital
India’, and we must meet the Digital Age heads-on with appropriate
skills and talent development.

Likewise, the country can lose
no further time in improving its ‘ease of doing business’ quotient. The
start-up ecosystem can deliver a rich harvest in India, and we must work
towards attracting more businesses from the mature economies to serve
our billion-plus consumers and provide gainful employment to our
aspirational youth. Initiatives like the Smart Cities program will help
usher in the next phase of urbanisation, but such initiatives need to be
sustained for years to come so that the changes start happening
organically at the grassroots level.”